COBB COUNTY, Ga. — A Cobb County man serving life in prison in his 22-month-old son's death is trying to convince a judge to give him a new trial. That decision from the judge won't come for a while, though.
It's been nearly seven years since Cooper Harris died, after his father Ross left him inside a hot car.
In a Tuesday hearing, the father's attorneys argued mistakes were made in his first trial. But the prosecution is insisting it was fair.
Ross Harris has been in prison since he was found guilty of murder and sentenced in December of 2016 to life in prison. At trial, prosecutors showed Harris left his son Cooper in a hot car for seven hours in 2014.
During the hearing, Harris appeared virtually from Macon State Prison, during a hearing where his attorney continued arguments requesting Harris' receive a new trial.
"We are raising these constitutional protections under both the US and the Georgia constitution," Mitch Durham, Harris' attorney said. "They weren't waived at trial, they weren't waived at the motion for a new trial and we ask the court to consider them."
Harris' attorney claimed his client received an unfair trial in 2016 because evidence was wrongly admitted, and he believed certain questions should have been allowed that weren't.
Harris has long maintained what happened to Cooper was an an accident - and not deliberate.
But prosecutors argued Harris doesn't deserve a new trial because the one in 2016 was fair, and he was well represented.
"It appears trial council was very effective in its representation of Mr. Harris," Senior Assistant District Attorney Linda Dunikoski said. "They fought tooth and nail for him. They had legitimate theories of their case, they pursued those legitimate theories of their case very doggedly."
Tuesday's hearing ended with the judge requesting the state and Harris' council submit proposals by next week for how the request for a new trial should proceed.
After that, Cobb County Superior Court Judge Mary Staley Clark will review the proposals.. Her staff told 11Alive it could take a matter of weeks before she issues a ruling on Harris' request for a new trial.